Names to Listen For: Undefeated

UFC veteran John Hathaway (11-0).

There are plenty of MMA prospects worth mentioning, but very few with spotless records. Even many of the top fighters suffer a defeat once or twice in the early stages of their career (part of the learning process, to be sure, and part of the sport). Still, there are a few prospects who start to make a name without ever taking that blow to the ego, guys who just have the cards break in their favor. Part of this column was driven by other members of the MMAOpinion staff, so thanks to Curtis and Yael for the input.

Watching up-and-coming fighters who are making the big stage already, there’s one name that jumps out to me, though it’s hard to imagine the guy staying undefeated forever (given the quality of the UFC welterweight division), a Brit: John “The Hitman” Hathaway (11-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC). Hathaway is still a prospect, sitting off the radar, with two wins over solid fighters with no real reputation. His UFC wins over Tom Egan (3-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) and Ricky Story (7-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC), who was on a six fight win streak at the time, were solid, but are not mindblowing and having gotten a great deal of attention. While it remains to be seen whether Hathaway will be a substantial fighter once he moves into the welterweight ranks, he’s definitely a solid prospect.

Joey Rivera (2-0 MMA) is still in the early stages of his career, but has already poster an incredibly impressive win in King of the Cage, defeating Shannon “The Cannon” Ritch (43-66-0-4 MMA). While Ritch is not really a top tier gatekeeper, it’s impressive for a fighter who was only 1-0 at the time to step in and take on such a solid veteran. Finishing that veteran in less than ninety seconds is also pretty impressive.

John Eric Marriot (10-0) is a name that most people almost certainly aren’t familiar with, but he’s definitely coming up in the sport. Despite his most recent win coming by split decision against a less than impressive Josh Arocho (3-6 MMA), Marriot is a fantastic fighter who’s shown a willingness to fight up in weight. While generally competing as a featherweight, Marriot came up to fight Arocho at lightweight, which is not totally new to him, since he fought well respected veteran Jack “The Motor” Montogmery (7-6 MMA), who fights in the welterweight and middleweight divisions. Marriot also holds wins over small-circuit veteran Ted Worthington (22-17 MMA) and WEC veteran Joe Benoit (7-2 MMA).

Curtis wanted to assure that I mention one of the top fighters coming out of Virginia Beach, and it’d certainly be a mistake to overlook Mack the Menace . Mackens Semerzier (3-0 MMA) is on the verge of a WEC debut, and the bantamweight phenom and father of three is looking to make a mark in one of the toughest divisions in the WEC. His wins are not over solid veterans, but as he’ll be stepping into a tough division and will be taking on many of those vets once he gets there, the name is worth mentioning.

Joey Rivera’s win over world class kickboxer Rick Roufos (4-5 MMA) has been left off of his record, as it was sanctioned as an exhibition match and not a fight sanctioned by the state athletic comission.